The Games
by JellyBubble
Summary: Kakashi becomes curious about Iruka. And then they begin to play a few games. Along the way, Kakashi learns about what type of person Iruka really is. Okay, I've decided to edit this to make it smoother and Chapt 3 has gone through an overhaul. I forget w
1. Chpt 1: Almost too close

The Games

**Summary: Kakashi becomes curious about Iruka. And then they begin to play a few games. Along the way, Kakashi learns about what type of person Iruka really is.**

**Pairing: Kakashi/Iruka**

**Rating: PG**

**Author's Note: My first try at a fanfic, I hope it's good. Constructive criticism accepted and any mistakes, I'll try to remedy. Try to be open-minded and give it a chance. **

**Please? Onegai? Anyway, on to the story.**

By the way, I don't own Naruto! 

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Chapt 1 Almost Too Close 

Kakashi was bored. His team was having a rest day after a particularly difficult mission (those damn feral cats again!), so he had nothing to do. His lone drooping eye watched the clouds as he walked along the streets of Konoha Village. A moment later, he began to notice an annoying sound next to his ear and turned his head to see swat the annoying thing. He spotted Gai standing next to him. It seemed that he had just finished speaking to him.

"Hmm? Did you say something?"

Iruka had a free day. His work was sorted; his house clean and restocked and the children were all somewhere else because it was the weekend. It was also a beautiful day.

_The day is so peaceful. I think I'll go practice and meditate and then have a picnic in the glade. _With that thought in mind, Iruka filled up a picnic basket and set off. He had been slightly disappointed to find that Naruto was too busy recovering from a recent mission to come. After a while, he got to the quiet glade and set down the basket, wiping his brow.

_This basket is heavy, perhaps I brought too much?_

"I must be too used to having Naruto around," he said out loud, a fond smile on his face.

He shook himself out of his memories and began his exercise stretches. Once done, he began practicing moves he had seen his father do a long time ago. When Iruka had been small, he had always watched his parents when they practicing. Every move was imprinted in his mind and he made himself practice all of them, but there were a few moves that he could never do. Whenever he failed again, it left him feeling slightly bitter, as if he had let his parents down. Today was no exception, but he refused to let himself feel depressed.

After he was finished, he sat down to meditate. He organised his thoughts, sorted out his chakra and relaxed his tense muscles one by one. When he was done, he began his chakra exercises, easy ones first, and than gradually working up to the harder, and more dangerous, ones.

Finally, to finish off, he did the Chakra Release exercise. This was the most dangerous exercise because you had to let out all of your chakra around you, but if you lost control, you could lose all your chakra, leaving you empty, and die. The sudden increase of chakra to the environment could also cause an energy explosion. But done successfully, would increase your understanding of your chakra and expand your ability with it.

Iruka relaxed and began to let his chakra flow out.

It poured out, like mist fountains, from Iruka and spread, tumbling and curling along the grass of the glade. Each blade was enveloped, each root, each speck of dirt and flower and rock became one with Iruka and his chakra. When he reached his limit, he began pulling his chakra back in, which covered the ground 200 meters all around him. Each tendril was carefully collected back inside himself. Iruka repeated this exercise two more times, each just as slowly, and just as carefully.

On his last, he tiredly began to collect his chakra back in again. Because he was exhausted, he had to concentrate even harder.

Suddenly, something collided with the back of his head forcefully.

_Control! Control!_ Iruka thought frantically, as his chakra went wild around him and he desperately tried to gather it back in. It was rapidly bundled in and collected, safe inside his body.

Furious at the very nearly deadly interruption, his formidable temper erupted and he closed his eyes and yelled.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?"

In his anger, and some fear at the near disaster, he lashed out with a punch that connected satisfyingly with someone's jaw and gave a roundhouse kick, which collided with someone else's head. Two bodies dropped to the floor.

Then, his anger spent, and realising what he had done, Iruka opened his eyes to look at his unfortunate 'victims'. A sweat drop trickled down his head.  /\/\/

oO /\)

'

Lying in front of him, swirly eyed and unconscious x , X were Kakashi and Gai.

It turned out later that Gai and Kakashi had been having another battle. Gai had missed Kakashi and had accidentally delivered a flying kick to Iruka's head, which now had a large lump on it.  /\/\/D

u u )

-

Realising that he had hit the wrong person, and seeing Iruka's fist come flying at him; he did what he considered only logical and fairly clever.

He dragged Kakashi in front of him. Which meant Kakashi received a very sore jaw.

What Gai hadn't seen coming (mainly because he was gloating over the fact that Kakashi had been knocked out), was the kick, which sent his head ringing and left a bruise on his face.

"Itaaaaiii…"

"I'm so sorry!" Iruka bowed and apologised for the fifth time since they woke up.

"Don't mention it," Kakashi winced as he moved his jaw. _Man, that chuunin can pack a punch! And that thing we interrupted before…_

"You wrecked my beautiful face!"

Iruka winced and flushed a deep red of embarrassment. Half of Gai's face had already turned purple, yellow and red. Tears were forming rivers down the man's face. …...( **** **** )

n

"Shut up Gai. I don't see any difference," Kakashi slurred in an uninterested tone.

"Hah! You are one to talk! You are so ugly you wear a mask to cover your face! I, however, am the green beast of Konoha! My very presence brightens up the room and everybody swoons at my smile!"

Kakashi's thoughts had already wandered. "Hmm? Did you say something?"

_Kkkkkk! My cool rival and his cool answers!_ Gai's eyes were flaming with passion and injustice as he posed with his fist in the air and the other pointed at Kakashi. "Ah! Your cool modern answer pierces my righteous shield of youth! I cannot compete!"

Meanwhile, Iruka had been rummaging around in his pockets and finally produced a jar of something green and pasty.

"Ano…I have this healing cream that we can use. It's good for bruises, lumps, cuts, cramps, sprains, and sore or tense muscles." He recited this as he opened the jar and scooped some out with his fingers. The pungent smell of strong herbs reached the noses of the other shinobi.

He began applying the salve to Gai's bruised face, who gasped and recoiled from the coldness and the pain.

"Stop moving!" Iruka scolded absentmindedly with a frown. Gai instantly stopped at the stern voice and held still. Iruka then treated Gai's various other cuts and bruises from his battle with Kakashi. Once done, Iruka moved on to the other jounin.

Gai tentatively poked at his face after the coldness began fading and gasped again. "This cream is really good! The bruise does not even hurt anymore!" Gai looked at his reflection in his polished forehead protector. "It is also fading!" He announced.

"I use it to treat the children sometimes, especially Naruto. He gets into scrapes so often that I have a pile of jars just for him." Iruka smiled affectionately at the memories of injured Naruto's that that statement brought up. He absentmindedly rubbed some salve into a cut on top of Kakashi's hand. Iruka shook himself out of his daydreaming and continued smearing the green stuff onto Kakashi's wounds. The two jounins watched, fascinated and fairly surprised, at the number of injuries found. More than half of them were hidden under clothing and some were even old injuries.

Iruka deftly pulled up Kakashi's sleeve to deal with a bruise on his upper arm, concentrating fully on his task, and didn't notice the jounin's look of surprise that he had found it. Kakashi's face was quickly schooled back into an expression of boredom when Iruka was done.

Iruka finally looked up into Kakashi's face and reached out with a salve-covered hand.

Startled, Kakashi jerked back and grabbed the hand.

"What do you think you're doing?" he slurred, still somehow managing a detached tone.

Iruka frowned. "I'm going to treat your jaw. I'm not going to take your mask off. I don't need to."

Kakashi tilted his head in puzzlement but released the hand.

Iruka shuffled closer and placed his clean hand on Kakashi's head to hold him still; while the salve covered hand hovered above the other man's mask. Iruka closed his eyes and breathed in deeply. The two jounins sensed chakra released into the hand with the salve and gather in the chuunin's lungs.

Abruptly, Iruka bent forward toward Kakashi's face. Kakashi would have jerked back again but Iruka's other hand was keeping him in place. Kakashi's heart beat wildly as the other man's face got closer, but then Iruka stopped about two centimetres away and gently blew on his hand. Kakashi's one, visible eye widened as he noticed the salve turn into little green particles and travel on Iruka's warm breath towards his mask. When it reached the cloth mask, it seemed to melt through and Kakashi felt the now familiar coldness of the healing cream on his face.

Kakashi stared at the other man's face in wonder. Once all the particles were gone, Iruka stopped blowing and smiled.

"All done," he announced softly.

"All done making out?" came Gai's voice. "Look, if you really wanted some time alone, you could have just told me. Hah ha ha ha ha!"

Startled, Iruka opened his eyes and saw Kakashi's face less than an inch in front of his. And with one hand resting on the other man's head and the other one nearly so on his face and his face so near… Iruka blushed a deep red at what it must look like and quickly jerked back. And then Iruka realised that during his ministrations, he had placed his legs on either side of Kakashi's hips in order to get that close and flushed a deeper scarlet. u//u

Seeing Iruka flush so many colours, Kakashi laughed._ He's so cute! …Wait a minute. Did I just think that Iruka was cute? Oh well..._

Kakashi stopped laughing and felt his jaw.

"Hey, it stopped hurting!"

Gai looked at his reflection again.

"And my bruise is gone!"

"That's some really good cream," Kakashi said. "Better than what the ANBU have. It could really come in handy. Do you know where I can get some, Iruka?"

Iruka looked away in embarrassment but pride filled his voice. "I made it."

"Nani?" "Nani?"

Iruka looked up defensively at the two jounins. "I made it. I noticed how bad the ninja medicines were and learnt all about herbs and their properties on one of my missions, so I created my own salve with a bit of my chakra. I never gave it in because whenever I spoke of it, everybody else talked of how a ninja must learn to work through pain."

Both jounins blinked, and then Kakashi, being the observant one despite using only one eye, noticed that Iruka was still covered with scrapes and a lump.

"You're still hurt. Is there any of that cream left?"

He received a negative response and both the older ninjas shot guilty glances at each other.

Iruka noticed and laughed. He waved them off and said, "Don't worry about me. Nothing I can't handle. You two were the ones fighting."

The two ninjas continued to have guilty, or in Gai's case, guiltier faces.

Then Iruka spotted his picnic basket and grinned at the other two.

"Look, if you really want to make it up to me, join me for my picnic. I think I made too much and I don't want to have to carry back a heavy basket." /\/

Gai looked doubtful but Kakashi's one visible eye curved in happiness. /\/ \\ 

_A free meal should never be passed up._ (\\\/)

**Yay! Finished the first chappie! Tell me what you think please! **

**Second chapter will be coming soon!**


	2. Chpt 2: Picnic

**Summary: Kakashi becomes curious about Iruka. And then they begin to play a few games. Along the way, Kakashi learns about what type of person Iruka really is.**

**Pairing: Kakashi/Iruka**

**Rating: PG**

**Author's Note: Hello ppl! Glad you like my fic so far.**

**Isolde1****: My first reviewer! Thank you very much and I hope to hear from you in the future!**

**Sora Kohaku****: My second reviewer! Yay! Arigato gozaimasu!**

**sidheranma: Thank you very much for your review and your corrections!**

**About the:**

"**When you mention Gai and Kakashi being unconscious you have x, X...is that supposed to mean something?"**

**I originally had a few faces that I created along the story. The x, X was an unconscious face with stars around it, but scrambled them up and can't take some of the symbols, so unfortunately I had to delete them. Their still on my Word document though **

**I had a Kakashi and a Gai and two Iruka's! I might try to find another fanfic place that can accept them.**

**karinms: Hello! I'm trying not to make Iruka a sissy Thanx for your review!**

**Polka dot: Thanks for your review. Unfortunately, my characters will still talk to themselves in their head so that you can grasp what is going on, but I'm fairly sure that it won't be as much in the future. Would making them talk to themselves or an inanimate object make you feel better? Or would that be too much of the same thing? I'd love to hear more on your views!**

**mini-kero: Hugs back I'm glad you like it and found it funny, I sometimes worry whether my sense of humour is the same as others…**

**Aaaaanyway, I hope you continue to find Iruka interesting and I'm going to have lots of fun. I need to think of what's going to happen to lead things up in the next chapter. Hope to keep hearing from you! **

**Iceheart19: I hear and obey. Here's the next chappie! **

**Ivy Adrena****: I agree that a lot of ppl underestimate Iruka! Go the hidden him! And you need wait no longer, for here is the second chapter!**

**Next chpt now. Thanks for all the reviews!**

**By the way, I don't own Naruto!**

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Chapt 2 Picnic and Thoughts for the Future 

The three shinobis held their picnic among the boulders in the glade. When they got there, the two jounins were astonished to see the basket filled with delicious looking buns, colourful sushi, a flask of tea and various other mouth-watering morsels.

Iruka scratched the back of his head in embarrassment. "I really did bring too much…"

Gai and Kakashi were still staring at the basket. "Don't worry," Kakashi replied reverently. "We'll help you finish it."

Iruka began taking it all out, bringing the two older ninja's out of their trance. They quickly helped unpack and continued drooling at the display of food. Iruka began to shift uncomfortably.

"Aren't you going to eat?" he asked timidly.

The two ninja's needed no other invitation and immediately helped themselves to the food.

"This tastes wonderful! I, the beautiful green beast of Konoha, have tasted nothing better! Iruka, who cooked all this magnificent food? If fortune so favours me, and it is a woman, I shall gallop off and marry her this instant!"

Iruka fervently praised the heavens for having been born male. "Actually, I made it."

Gai turned to look at him with profound respect in his eyes. "What a talented person you are! You can heal and cook and have the love and respect of all your students! Lee himself has also praised you highly! I have heard constantly of your kindness and how children always wish to be in your classes! You are truly an amazing person, worthy of respect!" ((

J

Iruka blushed lightly at the compliment but said nothing and continued to eat. He kept his face down and didn't look up. Kakashi noted that Iruka didn't try to catch a glimpse of his face unmasked as others, such as a certain rival sitting nearby, tried to do.

Gai had recently got it into his head that his new goal would be to catch Kakashi unmasked while he was eating and finally prove that he was better then his eternal rival. He would do this by doing what no person had ever done before and that was to see under Kakashi's mask.

So now Kakashi had barely eaten anything because he kept having to cover up when Gai glanced over at him at every other bite. Kakashi was a fast eater, but Gai was also trained in speed.

Kakashi was saved by impending starvation by Iruka, who had finally looked up when he noticed that Kakashi hadn't been eating much despite his earlier enthusiasm.

Upon realising the situation, a disapproving frown graced his features. He fixed his gaze on Gai, who had just, yet again, whipped his head around to look at Kakashi.

"Gai-sensei." Disappointment dripped from Iruka's words. "You should know better. Stop glancing at Kakashi and allow him to eat in peace."  /\/\/

**--** )

u/u -----

Gai immediately began to stammer apologies and blush ashamedly under Iruka's disapproving glare. Feeling guilty, Gai stopped glancing in Kakashi's direction, for which Kakashi felt eternally grateful to the chuunin and relieved. He began to eat with more gusto and appreciated the food even more.

Seeing food in Kakashi's vicinity disappearing at a faster pace, Iruka gave a nod of satisfaction and began eating again himself.

Now able to eat in leisure, Kakashi scrutinised the chuunin in front of him. He also glanced at Gai once more and was amused to find that the other jounin had resolutely turned away from him in shame.

_Praise the man for his ability to make even grown men feel like a shamefaced child._ Kakashi turned to look at Iruka once more. _He really is amazing and that healing salve he created is really exceptional. My jaw doesn't even hurt from eating. And that Chakra Release technique. You need really good control and a perfect sense of your own power for that. He could, and should, have died when we interrupted it. We would have died too from the backlash. To get it under control after its gone wild takes a really strong ninja, but he's only a chuunin. Naruto was always talking about him, but I never paid attention, perhaps I should have... This man has suddenly become very interesting. _Kakashi grinned._ It might be fun to mess around with him too. I need to pay him back from the shock he gave me when he leaned so close._ His free hands strayed towards his lips._ I almost thought he was going to kiss me. Wouldn't do to let him steal my first kiss._

Kakashi noticed his wandering hand and glared at it. _Oh well. Shouldn't be too hard to pay him back. He blushes easily enough. _He grinned again happily. _This is going to be so much fun! _ /\/

_/\/_ _ \\_

(\\\/)

Everyone finished eating and Kakashi put his mask back in place. Gai had finally stopped feeling guilty when Iruka thanked him for helping him pack up.

_I bet he doesn't even realise that he was told off by a chuunin,_ Kakashi thought, amused.

They stood up to leave and began to head back to the village when Kakashi noticed that Iruka wasn't with them. He looked back to see the chuunin staring at the sunset. The sky was glowing orange and red. Red like blood was staining the air if you wanted to think of it that way.

Something was different though, Kakashi thought. Something about Iruka. He looked more closely at the scarred face. He looked hard and saw……nothing. Iruka's face was blank. There was just nothing there to see. It just seemed to hold a vast emptiness…

"Just like that time…"

It was so soft but Kakashi just managed to hear. And as quickly as Kakashi had seen it, it disappeared and Iruka was back to normal, his face polite and smiling.

Kakashi blinked in confusion.

What was it that he had seen?

**Okay ppl! That's the second chapter. The third chapter may take a little longer to think up and post. Inspire me to go faster please. (Go ahead and threaten and rant and rave) It will help get me going. Anyway, Please review! And constructive criticism is accepted and inform me of any corrections that need to be made. Feel free to ask any questions!**


	3. Chpt 3: Decorations

**Summary: Kakashi becomes curious about Iruka. And then they begin to play a few games. Along the way, Kakashi learns about what type of person Iruka really is.**

**Rating: PG**

**Author's Note: **

**Hey people! I'm sorry this took so long, and that this is only going to be a spiff to let you know that I haven't given up on this story yet. In fact I have plans for sequels! Or I could just lump them all together…. I apologise for this short chapter. Any ideas people would like to use from my fics is free to be taken, just lemme read the story when you put it up! - Anyway, it'll probably be a while before I update again because this is an important year for me, filled with exams. Please be patient a while longer but be assured, I shall continue and finish this! **

**I don't own Naruto or its character's.**

**Chapter three: Decorating**

It was the day after the picnic. Kakashi was now happily arriving three hours late to the torture- ahem; I mean the _training_, of Team 7.

He arrived with a **poof **on top of the archway of the bridge to which Naruto and Sakura instantly shouted "You're LATE!"

Kakashi jumped down and grinned. He opened his mouth to give what he thought as his most ingenious excuse ever when a chilling atmosphere descended around and most definitely behind him. He could feel an icy glare bite into his back that sent shivers up and down his spine.

Kakashi fearfully turned his head around to look, his shoulders hunched up protectively. There, looming above him stood an enraged and furiously blushing Iruka. Veins were popping out all over the chuunin's face and a purposefully raised clenched fist.

"Kakashi….." Iruka's voice was pitched low and sounded strained, full of suppressed anger.

Kakashi's apprehensive face suddenly turned into a grin.

"Didn't you like my decorations?"

Last night, Kakashi had offered to walk Iruka home in an effort to get to know the odd chuunin better. And to mess with the chuunin's mind of course. Being polite, Iruka had of course accepted.

Along the way Kakashi broke the silence.

"You know, Naruto talks a lot about you."

Iruka looked at the other man, surprised and curious.

"Really? What does he say?"

"I don't know. I never listen."

Iruka tripped. Forcing a strained sort of cheerfulness to his face he looked up again.

"Naruto talks a lot about you too," he said, brightly.

Kakashi smirked. "All bad, I bet."

Iruka's reply was slightly smug. "You would have lost that bet. He does complain about how you're always late, and that you're lazy, and how you're always reading some stupid book, and how you never treat him to ramen," Iruka's face had gradually worked itself into a frown. "And how you're always teaching Sasuke other things, and … well, anyway, there are a few good comments."

_Very few and far between though…_ Iruka sweat dropped.

"Despite everything, though, he thinks you're a good teacher, that you emphasise the right stuff and you're all right to be with."

_That's about all the good comments. At least they're all the ones that didn't turn into bad ones._ Iruka sweat dropped again.

"Sasuke and Sakura like you too, I think. I'm glad that you have their respect"

_Otherwise we'd all be in BIG trouble. _Images of Naruto's old pranks ran through Iruka's mind. He shivered. Iruka glanced over at the other man.

"Naruto used the word 'emphasise'?"

Iruka's eye began to twitch.

Kakashi's hands quickly went up in defence. "I'm joking, joking!" His one visible eye curved up as he grinned. "I'm sure Naruto knows lots of big words. I must admit though that I'm more curious about you."

Iruka raised an eyebrow, startled. "Me?"

Kakashi looked back with a serious expression. "Yes, you." He took a breath. "Where on earth did you learn to cook like that?"

Iruka blushed and looked away, mumbling something about secrets.

This, of course, just caused Kakashi to become even more curious and he proceeded to poke the chuunin in the side in an effort to make him speak louder. He was amused to see Iruka twitch away from his fingers.

Experimentally, he poked Iruka again and became gleeful when he saw Iruka twitch and absentmindedly try to swat the offending digits away from his sensitive side. Kakashi's expression, what could be seen of it, took a decidedly evil turn, but was quickly schooled back to disinterest as the reached Iruka's apartment door.

Iruka remained oblivious, thinking about certain secrets, although he did get a sense of foreboding that sent shivers down his spine.

Despite warning bells going off in his head and his sense of foreboding increasing, Iruka politely invited Kakashi into his living space. As Iruka put away the picnic basket and threw away the rubbish, Kakashi had a quick look around the apartment to gauge Iruka's personality better. Usually, a person's home was filled with personal effects that could tell a lot about a person and Iruka certainly seemed the type to fill his with photos and kid's drawings and other sorts of souvenirs and memorabilia. So Kakashi was very surprised at the very blankness of the place he was currently in. The place looked functional and clean. It had books in shelves and worksheets on desks.

_Everything has its place in here. It doesn't really suit him, this place._ Kakashi eyed the bare walls. And suddenly he grinned. _Perhaps I can help liven things up in here._ His grin grew wider.

However it was quickly wiped off when Iruka found him.

"Was there anything else you needed Kakashi-sensei?"

Kakashi smiled cheerfully. "Ah, there is this one question you could answer for me"

Iruka inclined his head questioningly. The question, when it came, was not about his bare walls as he had expected.

"What is your favourite thing in the whole world?"

Iruka stared at Kakashi, bewildered, as the question processed through his mind. Kakashi patiently kept grinning at him, making Iruka slightly nervous.

"Um…Naruto?" he answered tentatively.

Kakashi pouted and scowled at the same time. "Besides the brats, I mean."

Iruka flared slightly at the use of this term but held his tongue as he tried answering again. He was curious as to the reason for this type of question.

"Well, then, I like the ocean with the eerie songs of whales and the forest with its trees wrapped in sunlight. I also like hot desert sand that feels dry but cleansing against your skin." Iruka's voice was clear, but his eyes held a slightly glazed and reverent look. No one had really asked this of him before, had never tried to get beyond his stubborn Naruto reply. Hearing the name, most people dropped it. It felt refreshing to tell someone of his fondness for the land. "I like the crisp taste of fresh snow in my mouth on icy mountain tops. I enjoy watching the fields of grass bend in the wind like a phantom breath of a giant has fallen upon it. I like the crashing of waterfalls and the energy of volcanoes. My favourite thing is life."

Kakashi felt winded from the reply. It was just, so much more than he had expected, and felt so raw with the emotion that Iruka had put into those words. Kakashi smiled ruefully. _This is going to be harder than I thought._

Kakashi then grinned evilly.

"What? So no females?"

Iruka shook himself out of his reverie and glared at the jounin, feeling offended that his answer had been mocked. But his glare didn't keep, as the jounin's eye was warm with understanding and appreciation, though his mouth, under the mask, still smirked. Iruka smiled ruefully and retorted an answer.

"Do I look like I could handle the excitement of a kunoichi in my life?"

Kakashi bounded closer energetically and swung an arm across Iruka's shoulders. "Who says you need a live female?" He whipped out Icha Icha Paradise and shoved it in Iruka's face. "You could have pictures!"

Iruka yelped and leaped away, covering his slightly offended eyes. "Get that away from me!"

Kakashi chased after him, waving the book. "Ooh, look! This pictures good!"

Iruka ran away and they continued this chase until Iruka successfully lured Kakashi out before running back in the apartment and slamming the door. Kakashi smirked happily, caressing his well-thumbed book with a finger outside the door, thoughtfully staring at it. His smirk grew perceptively wider and mischievous as he thought _This is going to be sooooo good _and walked quickly away.

Inside Iruka panted as he leaned against the door. He smiled. It had been a while since he had such fun. After calming down, he ate dinner, showered and went to bed.

The next morning, the second day of the weekend, Iruka woke up, his eyes still heavy-lidded with sleep. He yawned and drowsily flung away the covers of his futon. Eventually he rolled over. He gathered his arms and legs beneath him, butt in the air, eyes almost closed again. He slumped, practically sleeping again. He became more awake suddenly and surged upwards. Still drowsy, he forced his eyes open. And screamed.

At the monument, Kakashi grinned when he heard a scream pierce the air.

_He must have woken up!_ Kakashi hummed happily as he set off to meet his brats.

Iruka shut his eyes again and pelted into the bathroom. Panting against the door he opened his eyes again. And yelped even louder as he jumped back through his door and ran out to his living room, which was similarly as startling as his bedroom was. In fact _all _his rooms were like that. Except his bathroom, his bathroom was definitely the worst. Iruka ran out of his house for solace.

Finally calming down and gathering his scattered thoughts, the only possible answer for the state of his apartment occurred to him.

"Kakashi……..!"

Iruka pelted off.

Which leads us to the starting scene.

"YOU CALL THOSE DECORATIONS! You covered all my walls with…with…" here Iruka faltered at the sight of Team seven's faces peering curiously from behind Kakashi's grinning image. Iruka grabbed the jounin's arm and darted a short distance away.

"You covered all the walls of my house with_ pornography_!And my bathroom…" Iruka shuddered at the thought of what was in his bathroom. "How could you? What were you _thinking_? _Were_ you thinking? Aaargh! I'm gonna have to burn my apartment down!"

"What! Burn the life-sized posters? No way! I spent a lot of time decorating your walls for you!" Kakashi acted indignant.

Iruka's frayed nerves didn't let him hear Kakashi's words as he turned back to the direction of his apartment. "I'm gonna burn them right now!"

"Not the posters! Nooooooo! At least keep the blow up dolls in your bathroom! I spent a lot of air blowing those up!" Kakashi ran after him.

When Iruka reached his apartment, he immediately began tearing down the posters, starting with his bedroom. However, pulling down the poster did not reveal the bare, white walls, which he had expected, but a blue-green background with a grey triangle poking out the side. Bewildered, he tore down more. When he had finished pulling off posters, he stared at his walls in astonishment.

"Do you like it?"

Iruka turned to look at Kakashi who was lounging gracefully against the doorframe, and then looked back at his walls. Before him was an astounding picture of an under water sea, complete with a humpback whale (the grey triangle being the end of its right flipper) diving gracefully deeper into the depths. The picture took Iruka's breath away. Iruka looked back at Kakashi, the answer clear in his expression.

Iruka then went around the house, taking down all the posters, revealing all the landscapes and images he had voiced the previous night. Just looking at the desert made him feel dry and warm.

When he had finished taking the posters down and admiring his new walls, he looked over at Kakashi and smiled wryly.

"Do I really have to keep the blow up dolls?"

Kakashi just grinned back in contentment.

**Oh ho! Done. Turned out longer than I expected. There shall be another chapter at some point and I hope you guys appreciate it as it is _1.32AM IN THE MORNING_ and I have a 7.30AM test today. And so concludes this Chapter. Do you think the friendship appeared too fast? It seems that way a little, to me. I was hoping to slow it down a little, or at least find a way to lead up to it. Anyway time to get to bed. Review please. I'll answer any questions and correct any mistakes.**

**To answer general ideas that popped up in reviews:**

**There is a reason why Kakashi doesn't want anyone to see under his mask in this. **

**Which also leads to why he hasn't kissed anyone yet.**


	4. Chpt 4: For Icha Icha Paradise and Porn!

**Summary: Kakashi becomes curious about Iruka. And then they begin to play a few games. Along the way, Kakashi learns about what type of person Iruka really is.**

**Rating: PG**

**Author's Note: Hello again! Yeah, I know, **_**finally**_** another update. So I re-read the third chapter that I had written down but didn't quite type up. I'd forgotten how funny it was so I just had to add in the bits, but it'll have to be as a fourth chappie, but that's good for you, ne? The paintings, mentioned in the third chapter, were done on bamboo slats, so all Kakashi had to do was fold them out, hang 'em up and, of course, cover 'em with porn!**

**Thanks for the reviews ppl! I blush at all the compliments. Does wonders for my writing ego. It has me so happy I may start another fic. I'm so excited! squees**

**So! Keep a lookout for it. **

**I don't own Naruto…pout so without further ado,**

**Chapter four: "For Icha Icha Paradise and Porn!"**

"I'm still gonna kill…well, maybe not kill…fine-You're still gonna pay for exposing my eyes to that material. What if one of my students had decided to visit me?"

"Um, they would have got an education?"_ Just not the one they would have been expecting._

Iruka glared at the grinning jounin, but couldn't keep it in face of the gift in front of him and so resorted to pouting. The jounin's grin just got wider so Iruka sighed. "Don't you…you know, have _students_ you're supposed to look after?"

Kakashi started staring at the ceiling. "Oh, yeah…" Suddenly he grinned again at Iruka. "Do you want them to help take care of some of the things?"

Iruka paled and whacked Kakashi on the back of his head. "No way! I don't want them exposed to this material and if they were getting rid of it they wouldn't be able to help but see some of it. Not only that, they'll wonder what _porn_ was doing in _my_ house!"

Kakashi was busy nursing the back of his head. _That was the_ point_. They could even keep some of it. And doesn't he know his own strength?_ However, Kakashi sprang right up at Iruka's next words.

"I'll burn them myself-"

"_What?_ That's perfectly good porn. I can't let you do that!" His slight pout was ruining the effect of his otherwise serious face.

"Is that so?" Iruka winced slightly as the tone of his words seemed to imply an insolent 'bite me'. It usually ended up with the other person actually doing something.

Kakashi had just been thinking about what to do and had come up with an idea, which I might add, caused an evil, evil gleam in his eye- when there was a knock on the door.

"IRUKA-SENSEI! KAKASHI-SENSEI! ARE YOU THERE???" Obviously Naruto.

Iruka started hastily shoving the porn paper littering the floor of the room under everything under the sun at hyper-panicked speed. He even tried shoving them under his empty trashcan, which just resulted in the said trashcan toppling over. Kakashi, of course, just looked on in amusement at the chuunin's antics. Unfortunately for Iruka, the noise he was causing gave away the fact that they were in fact present in the apartment.

"WE'RE COMING IN!!!"

Iruka yelped (the posters were peeking out of their secreted places) and the next thing Kakashi knew, he had been thrown at the door, which had been in the process of bursting open, causing it to slam shut again.

"ITAIIII! WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!"

Iruka bolted out, grabbing Kakashi who was still sitting dazedly at the door, and then slammed the door shut behind him. Naruto was sitting on his butt rubbing his head, which had collided with the door when he had tried to skip in. Sasuke and Sakura had managed to avoid being bowled over by the flying projectile that had been Naruto.

"Ah, I'm so sorry Naruto! I tripped and fell on the door when I went to answer it. Are you hurt? Why don't I treat you to some ramen to make it up to you?" Iruka was faintly aware that he was babbling in an effort to distract the kids as to why he had rushed out and slammed the door, dragging Kakashi behind him. At least he remembered to mention ramen.

"Yay! Ramen, ramen, ramen! Can we go right now, Iruka-sensei?"

Kakashi decided to butt in. "Nope! We still have a mission to do that will take up most of the day." Kakashi then grinned and cast a sly look at Iruka before adding, "However, Iruka here has graciously volunteered to help, seeing as it is his fault that we're going to be late. Right, Iiruka-sensei?"

Iruka spluttered in indignation, but the sounds were drowned out by Naruto's ecstatic yells and Sakura's pleased squeals.

"Now, it will take us an hour to get to our clients place, SO, we better start moving. Let's go!" Kakashi proceeded to skip away, trusting that his students would drag Iruka along and ignore his protests. After a while Iruka even stopped complaining and just enjoyed catching up on news with his ex-students.

"Ne, ne, Kakashi-sensei! What ranking is this mission? Is it dangerous?" Naruto was jumping circles around Kakashi, who was reading his book.

"Saaa! Today we have a C-ranked mission and it could put you in dangerous situations. It is a _search and destroy_! Won't that be fun?"

"YEAH! YEAH! What are we searching for, Kakashi-sensei? I bet I'll find it before Sasuke-bastard does!!"

Kakashi put his book away and put on a serious expression. Iruka looked at him suspiciously. As he recalled, C-ranked missions weren't that dangerous…

"Now, listen up brats! This client has requested us to rid him of some stuff in his plot of forest. We have multiple targets. However, some of them are likely to be located in dangerous places, so you will have to practice stealth and caution."

"SO, WHAT'S OUR TARGET ALREADY???" Naruto was raring to go. Sakura nodded vigorously in agreement and the kids leaned forward in anticipation.

Kakashi, who had had a serious expression on up til then, suddenly bent forward at the waist towards his students, a hand on his hip and the other hand pointing a finger up with a grin on his face.

"Marijuana plants."

Everyone but Kakashi promptly face-planted. Iruka recovered first since he had been suspicious. When Naruto recovered, he did so loudly.

"WHAAAAAAT???"

Kakashi answered very seriously. "Marijuana plants. A plant that can be turned into an illegal drug with addictive effects and that's why our client has asked us to rid it from his forest for him."

Sakura, not to mention the rest of her team, wasn't satisfied. "And how the hell does that put us in any form of a dangerous situation." The look she served Kakashi was hard and sceptical.

Kakashi drawled his answer as if it should have been obvious. "Weell, maybe because it's an illegal drug and is addictive. Soooo, you'd think that there are some fairly greedy drug dealers out there that would do anything to get their hands on some of the plants, to cultivate their own crop and either sell it, or use it themselves. I'd say that puts us in a potentially dangerous situation, hmmmm?"

The children of Team 7 busily celebrated among themselves at getting a mission that was finally worth their skills and so no one but Iruka, who was levelling a hard stare at Kakashi, saw the slightly sadistic and gleeful smirk that seemed to emanate from the jounin's face. After all, he didn't _really_ expect any dangerous drug dealers around…

Kakashi cleared his throat to get his students attention. "To do this mission, we are each going to spread out to search for the plants. When you find them, put them in a bundle so that we can get rid of them in one go at a rendezvous point. If you find a large crop of marijuana rather than a single plant, take note of its position and than report it when we meet up again so that we can get rid of it together with the rest. Now, we'll meet…"

"I _did_ mention that we wouldn't be disposing of them by fire, didn't I?"

Giggle, giggle

Sob

"WHEEE!!"

"No, Kakashi, no you didn't." Iruka had his head planted in his right hand, with one eye peeking through his fingers at the kids. His left hand was busy holding Kakashi's spare mask over his face to avoid breathing in the hallucinogenic smoke hanging in the air. Kakashi buckled it up at the back, whilst watching the antics of his students bemusedly. Currently, Sakura was the giggly one (previously, that role had been Sasuke's, and _that_ had been scary!) and was busy trying to hug a very large tree to death, giving the faintly (or very) amusing image of a koala. It didn't help that she was doing it upside down.

Sasuke…now Sasuke was the one that was currently sobbing whilst confronting a stone pillar.

"Itachi, you bastard! You left me all alone! Without even a goodbye hug!" Sasuke proceeded to punch the pillar. "Itaiii! You're so cold, onii-san…"sob_hic_

Naruto? Naruto had stripped down to his boxers and was currently swinging his orange jumpsuit enthusiastically in a circle around his head. His black t-shirt was tied like a cloak around his neck.

"WHEEEEEE!"

At that moment, his jumpsuit became tangled with his shirt, which had just flown out behind him from a freak wind, and he proceeded to choke himself.

Iruka buried his eyes in his hand again. "Oh, god…"

How did they end up like this? Well…

"_Aaargh! We've been spotted by druggies!"_

"_Quick, dump your bundles in with their crop so that we can get rid of them all at once!"_

"**_Katon: Hosenka no Jutsu (Fire Style - Art of the Phoenix Flower, the Touch-me-not)"_**

"_Sasuke! Noooooo! Don't start a-"_

_VROOOM! __**crackle**__ sounds of a large amount of plants going up in smoke_

"_-fire…"_

Iruka escaped the effects of breathing in the smoke when they were engulfed by the smog, only because he had been the only one (barring Kakashi) with the sense to cover his face as well as he could with the neck of his shirt as they ran through the burning crop. Why'd they run? The 'druggies' appeared behind them brandishing various weapons. Now, you might wonder why they ran instead of just killing off their opponents and continuing about their business. Well…

"_You damn shinobi! Just because you're stronger than us doesn't mean you can use our land to grow illegal drugs!"_

"_We'll show you! Even shinobi can't stand up to a mob!"_

"_You idiot Naruto! Those aren't druggies! They're civilians!"_

"_They're right too. We can't stand up to them, although not for the reasons that they think. No hurting our client's __peons__. Quick! Through the crop!"_

"_Sasuke! Naruto! Sakura! Where are you three going?!"_

_Giggle, giggle _

"_Catch me if you caan!"_

"_Shit! They're on a high! Grab them!"_

Iruka moaned and covered his eyes as Sasuke started giggling again at the spectacle of Naruto going hysterical and fighting to get his clothes off, convinced they were after his life. Then, when what Naruto was doing registered in his mind, Iruka lunged at Naruto.

"Gak! Naruto, keep your boxers on!"

Whilst Iruka struggled with the genins, Kakashi stared at the fire raging behind them contemplatively. "You know, that fire's starting to look a little out of control…"

Iruka growled at the jounin as he grappled with Naruto to save his shirt. _What? Does he expect _me_ to do something??_

Kakashi continued to peer into the fire, a hand shading his…eye. "Those civilians seem to be having trouble dealing with it too. Looks like we'll have to help. Would you like to stay and baby-sit the brats-on-a-high or help put out the fire and save the people screaming for help?" Kakashi grinned and his eye became arched expectantly. Iruka glared at him. As if there was any question as to which one he would prefer to do. I mean, really, he was a _teacher_, for god's sake. For him, children were a piece of cake to deal with. "I'll save the screaming people, thanks."

Iruka moved to go but paused when Kakashi started to go with him. "Wait, wait, wait. Aren't you staying here to look after the kids?"

Kakashi eyed him. "Are you kidding me?"

"We can't just leave them here alone!"

Kakashi whined, "Why not?"

Iruka looked at him disbelievingly with a scowl on his face and an eyebrow raised, his head cocked in the direction of the genins, as if asking 'excuse me? Did I just hear you ask me that ridiculously stupid question that doesn't even deserve an answer but I'll give you one anyway and as a bonus, it's in pictures?' Kakashi obediently turned his head to look at his students.

Sasuke was doing endless cartwheels, one after the other. Naruto and Sakura had somehow found this to be an invitation to play leapfrog with him. Naruto was jumping between Sasuke's arms whenever his head flashed by and Sakura was doing the same with Sasuke's legs. At the moment that the two adults looked over, Sakura happened to miscalculate the distance that she needed to travel in order to get over her obstacle. To save herself she naturally put her foot down and kicked off to give herself the needed distance. Both men winced in sympathy and imagined pain as Sasuke crumpled to the forest floor.

"I think I can see your point." Kakashi said, distractedly. _Sakura's going to be absolutely, unbearably horrified when she's sane. Don't think Sasuke's going to be too happy either. That'll take a while to heal._ "Anyway, easy enough to deal with! Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone Skill)!" Another Kakashi appeared in a cloud of smoke. The original Kakashi slapped his clone on the back companionably, saying, "He can look after the brats. Problem solved." Iruka grumbled as he was dragged off.

Needless to say the saving went…_relatively _well…

"_Ma'am, if you'd just _stop running around_, I can take you to the stream right there and put your hair out."_

"_Iruka, just pick her up and toss her in. Like this!"_

_SPLASH! _

"_Umm, Kakashi? You realise that the stream was only one foot deep, right?"_

"_Oh? …damn…"_

_Body floats up in the water…_

"…_I'll start CPR…"_

They ended up putting the fire out (which was pretty much an inferno at this point) thanks to Iruka.

_(Panicking at this point) "Kakashi! You know the __Suiton: Suiryuudan no Jutsu __  
(Water Style: Water Dragon Blast Skill) do you not?"_

"_Er, yeah. Picked it up on a trip to wave country. Why?"_

"_Mirror me so that the dragons collide, and it might cause a large enough rain shower to put most of the fire out when they smash."_

The plan ended up working and in exchange for his brilliant plan working, Iruka graciously allowed Kakashi to take the blame for everything going awry.

…Of course their troubles didn't just end after that. After all, they still had to go back to collect the kids, escaping irate lords and sulking villagers. And so they ventured back to the clearing where they left them.

…Where they found everyone smoking the grass. Even the Kakashi clone.

Iruka glared at Kakashi as he sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck and quickly released his clone.

"Should have just _trapped_ them and left them tied up with nin wire." Iruka muttered as he picked up Sakura for the trip back.

Kakashi had the audacity to grin impishly at him. "And where would the fun be in that.

He dodged the kunai that Iruka threw at him easily and laughed at the brunette's spitting and hissing, as they ran off.

"Come on, admit it, you had fun." Kakashi was trying to coax the academy teacher out of his aggravated expression, even as he dumped Naruto carelessly in his bed.

Iruka scowled and booted him out of the way (or tried and missed, Kakashi didn't really care, as long as it didn't hurt) and proceeded to carefully arrange Naruto's body more carefully. They'd already dropped off Sakura with her parents and Sasuke at the Uchiha compound. And filed the mission report, God, how could he forget _that_.

When they'd arrived at the mission room with three hyperactive genins (this not even causing a twitch on Naruto's part but absolute shock in Sasuke's, especially when the dark haired ice prince glomped Ibiki and called the Torture and Interrogation expert his new big brother) and charred uniforms, along with the smell of burnt marijuana, everyone wanted to know what had happened.

And took the opportunity to pet the kids when they started acting like cats (very scarily affectionate cats) without the chance of getting bitten the usually independent and touch abhorrent kids.

They only managed to leave when Ibiki asked them to _please to kindly pry their kids off him, he was not a tree,_ and of course they had to immediately obey Ibiki, right?

In the end, Iruka couldn't help the wry smile on his face. He did have fun after all. He didn't get the chance to go out on missions that often, and never before with Naruto, so this had been quite an experience. He fondly brushed the blonds' hair as he stood up and gave the silver haired jounin a grudging upward quirk of his lips in answer.

Kakashi grinned happily. "That's great, sensei! That means you won't complain too much when I drag you on another mission, right? You didn't get to see Naruto try to show off his skills, and he would be terribly disappointed otherwise. Besides I need someone to do the thinking for me!" He twinkled his eye innocently before laughing and escaping out the window at Iruka's enraged bellow.

Now you might wonder what happened with the kids after that day. Sasuke woke up with a very big ache in his groin that he couldn't explain, and all three genins became addicted to smoking marijuana.

After three weeks they decided to quit, Sasuke because he noticed that it lowered his reflexes and inhibited his ninja skills (and that just wouldn't do, if he was going to take revenge on Itachi), Naruto because even under the influence he didn't want to be outdone by the icy bastard, and Sakura because, obviously if Sasuke disapproved of it she definitely couldn't use it.

Naruto replaced his addiction with ramen, which he didn't find too hard to do, but it wreaked hell on Iruka's wallet until the chuunin took to filching Kakashi's money without his notice. The jounin only wondered where it was going on those times when he wanted to buy Icha Icha books.

Sakura took much the same root but replaced her addiction with obsession of Sasuke. Her stalking skills greatly improved.

Sasuke, being the self controlled teen that he was, quit cold turkey. (Naruto adamantly refutes this and claims that the jerk just replaced it with training.)

**Erk! It's been ages since I updated and I did have most of this typed up, so I'm sorry if the style changes near the end. I've only got a vague idea of where this fic is going, so I'm sorry that I take so long. And thank you to all those people who still left me reviews even though this fic might have seemed 'dead'. It almost scared me sometimes that people still liked this enough to leave a review after years.**

**I hope you're not too disappointed with this chapter. I thought it was funny. It's been ages since I've watched Naruto though now and I haven't watched the fillers or beyond, so I'm not sure how well any ensuing chapters will keep in character (although I'm rather dubious to how well I've kept character already so…headdesk).**

**I'll do my best for another chapter. Although you are warned that I am a very,**_** very**_** good/bad (depending on your perspective) procrastinator.**


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